Get Inside the Industry at Metal Insider

Guest Insider: Mike Gitter Reviews Emmure’s ‘Felony’

Nu-Metal vs Death-Core? Slipknot vs. Suicide Silence? It was bound to happen and these CT bruisers nailed it first:. Whilst the Victory sticker on the shrink-wrap promises some general bowel-loosening, “heaviest band ever” kinda stuff, Felony is a bit more than what you’d expect from a band who offers up official Emmure boxing gloves in their online merch store. The biggest surprise comes on opener “Sunday Bacon” when front-growler Frankie gives it his best Jonathan Davis channeling Howard Jones. Riffs d-drop like so many suckas, sending hipsters running and “the kids” into a karate-kicking bliss. It’s easy to see why this bunch continues to gain ground so quicky – and it ain’t with their good looks. The title track eerily echoes the first Slipknot record whilst “You Sunk My Battleship” makes all that seem quite polite. Emmure is an easy bunch to write off as the latest sports-metal superstars. Yet, all things being cyclical, they may be hip to the 90’s revival without even knowing it. If Felony smacks of the Nu, make that Nookie-free.

Related Articles

Seriously? This album is awful. Frankie got their old guitarist out of the band because “he was holding the band back”, when in actuality the horrid vocals are what’s holding the band back. The new guitar sounds horrible; everything sounds exactly the same. Goodbye to Gallows was the only half decent album they put out. The lyrics on Felony are stupid as hell. This band has become nothing but another $c3n3c0r3 band

The Axe

Interesting I think you’re one of the first people in the industry to actually state explicitly that there will be a nu metal revival. I’d agree.

I’d say that Felony is good in a different way. It’s a bit more nu-metal and still has that same feel like they have in previous albums. I think the lyrics are not as raw as anything in GTTG, but it’s still solid for the experimental stage that they are going through vocally and musically. Only ACDC and few others can be in the niche and stay their for the duration of their musical lives. They are pushing the envelope and naturally going towards a more mainstream while stringing along the metal with it. “Don’t Be One” was a real glimpse at the potential of the singer and how the band can really emerge as a powerful force in the upcoming new generation mainstream metal scene. I understand that it’s “not cool” to do, but you try living in a van for a year traveling the country and get down day in and day out, without stopping and thinking, “there’s gotta be some compromise”. All in all, the nu-metal mix is different especially since that time has come and gone, but in a few years all that nu-metal will come back and people will look at this album with new admiration as it was ahead and behind it’s time. They may have jumped the gun from the musical fashion loop, but all in all, I’m content with it.

Anonymous

That’s a pathetic and untrue statement. The Lionetti brothers left to do other things, they weren’t kicked out. And honestly, I expected this album to be received a bit more warmly. Aren’t you sick of the monotonous heavy bands that do the same thing over and over? Big ups to Emmure for being different.

Matt

Gitter is notorious for bad decisions, or at least decisions that are increasingly worse with time.

EMAIL NEWSLETTER

News Ticker

With Charred Walls of the Damned’s third album, Creatures Watching Over the Dead, coming out on Friday (23), the album is now streaming online at drummer Richard Christy’s other job, at howardstern.com. You can preorder it here.

Late Night With Seth Meyers has already had Mastodon’s Brann Dailor fill in on drums for a week. They’re extending their metal cred by having Anthrax on the show on August 24th, where they’ll be performing “Monster At The End.”

Metallica’s August 20th concert at Minneapolis’ US Bank Stadium will be streamed live on Pandora. Listeners can tune in here at 10pm EST to listen. Until then, you can go there and hear a playlist curated by the band.

Guns N’ Roses will be playing two shows this weekend at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, and John Varvatos and Bravado have collaborated for a pop-up shop at the John Varvatos store at 315 Bowery (the former site of CBGB). There will be a launch party today from noon-2. More info here.

Wondering where you can stream the Alternative Press Music Awards? Sure you are! They’ll be on the Amazon Music Twitch channel, which we never heard of until now, starting at 7pm on Monday, July 18th. To read more about the APMAs, go here.